His food often consisted of bird-seed,
manioc-roots, and meal. No wonder if he suffered much. Others would not
have all that to bear. Moreover, if the fever of the district was
severe, it was almost the only disease. Consumption, scrofula, madness,
cholera, cancer, delirium tremens, and certain contagious diseases of
which much was heard in civilized countries, were hardly known. The
beauty of some parts of the country could not be surpassed. Much of it
was densely peopled, but in other parts the population was scattered.
Many of the tribes were friendly, and, for reasons of their own, would
welcome missionaries. The Makololo, for example, furnished an inviting
field. The dangers he had encountered arose from the irritating
treatment the tribes had received from half-cast traders and
slave-dealers, in consequence of which they had imposed certain taxes on
travelers, which, sometimes, he and his brother-chartists had refused to
pay. They were mistaken for slave-dealers. But character was a powerful
educator. A body of missionaries, maintaining everywhere the character
of honest, truthful, kind-hearted Christian gentlemen, would scatter
such prejudices to the winds.
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